Forensic Analysis · Midstream Pipelines · as of Nov 9, 2026
Oneok Inc /New/ (OKE)
A forensic read on Oneok Inc /New/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
1.1
Distress distance
4
Forensic signals
17.2%
ROE
55.0%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Oneok Inc /New/ earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+13.6%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +29% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+13.6%/yr). The count is growing — 485.4M shares in FY2023, 625.9M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~13.6% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~22%.
7.3%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 7.3% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.2-point range. After-tax operating profit was $3.1B in FY2023 and $4.4B in FY2025, with operating income at 23.0% of revenue in FY2023, 23.0% in FY2024 and 17.1% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +48% across FY2023–FY2025, from $41.0B to $60.6B, while the return fell 0.3 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 7.6% the older base was already earning.
0.3% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.3% of revenue and 4% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.15 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 13.6% a year across FY2023–FY2025, and the rate is falling. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
109% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $2.7B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 109% of free cash flow. That is $211M (9%) more than free cash flow covered. It came out of the balance sheet's own liquid holdings, not new debt: cash fell $655M over FY2025, while total debt fell $81M. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 65% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $92M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 112%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$33.63B
Revenue Growth YoY+55.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+37.9%
Net Margin10.1%
Free Cash Flow$2.45B
Return on Equity17.2%
Debt / Equity1.42x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Oneok Inc /New/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?